When viewing works that have a function, one wonders whether there is a critical distinction between art and craft; between creativity and structural formulas; between innovation and “form follows function?” The exhibit at the CAM gathers musical instruments from around the globe and across the centuries with a breadth of styles, technical proficiency, and cultural influences, and stimulates the senses as well as the intellect.
“The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.”
-Albert Einstein
This is my fourth article pertaining to the design field and again it is necessary to distinguish between art and design. Design in essence cannot be accomplished without specific degrees of control, and almost always has a definitive point to make.
“Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit,” currently on view through September 9, 2012 at the Cincinnati Art Museum, invokes the hush and grandeur of a nighttime cathedral with dark-toned walls and Midnight in Paris lighting, as if to set the stage for an upscale art-history coronation...
The Color Pencil Society’s 20th Anniversary International Exhibition is an extensive show filling the main gallery and 4 galleries on the second floor of the Carnegie Art Center. This organization, founded by Vera Curnow of Rising Sun, Indiana, seeks to lend stature to the medium of color pencil as a fine art material and facilitate teaching the techniques.
I stand before George Inness’s Near the Village, October on the last hot day of June and long for fall. This medium size painting, 30 x 45 inches, seems larger to me. Perhaps its stately frame makes it feel more formidable. Near the center of the painting in the middle ground we see the suggestion of a man in a white shirt leaning against a tree.
Rarely does an artist have the opportunity to express so vividly an equal passion for music and visual art. Jon Langford’s solo exhibit which came down July 14, 2012, at Clay St. Press was able to achieve that dichotomy. In fact, he has lived on both sides of the late 1970’s.
When my mother was 90 years old, I took her for her first visit to the Cincinnati Art Museum. She was a self-trained painter who worked from photographs taken from Ideals magazines. My mother was quite skilled in the art of copying photos. Drawing came easily to her and she could match the colors of the landscape.
Some students learn better visually. There are many students who are at risk of not graduating from high school and art can serve as a method to bridge that gap. As an artist and a current student, I see the value of using art as an educational tool. I think Lorin Hollander, a world renowned pianist, said it best, “Art isn’t simply important education; it is education. Art is the gymnasium of the mind, body, and spirit.
By the beginning of my second week at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, I came closer to a working rhythm that did not feel...
